Our latest quarterly report on trends in disinformation is now available: 'Public Policies so They Don’t Fool You'. You can download it here and learn about the main false narratives that circulated during the first months of 2021, as well as useful information about the most relevant academic research in the field of disinformation.
We also analyze the spectacular rise of hoaxes that are actually scams, such as those promoting fake giveaways of houses or luxury items on social media, or those that try to steal your data by pretending to be Correos, your bank or the Tax Agency via SMS and email. We have just set up an exclusive mailbox for this [email protected] and we keep receiving reports from people who have lost up to €2,000 in some scam.
We also review the political hoaxes of the first quarter, mainly those that spread around the elections in the Community of Madrid last May 4. In addition to disinformation related to candidates and parties, we are particularly concerned about the "resurrection" of many hoaxes that, without any evidence, denounce alleged electoral fraud and delegitimize the democratic process.
During this quarter we have also experienced a new wave of hoaxes about vaccination against coronavirus, particularly the one claiming that the vaccine causes "magnetism" and that we have seen in almost a hundred different videos. We also experienced the crisis at the Ceuta border with the massive crossing of migrants, during which we saw organized networks spreading hoaxes to create panic: stabbings, rapes or the burning of churches that never took place but forced us to publish 16 debunks in a single day
We also bring you a compilation of false quotes attributed to politicians and the latest data on information consumption via WhatsApp in Spain and its importance for understanding the phenomenon of disinformation in our country. This report is produced every three months by our Public Policy and Institutional Development unit, you can contact them at [email protected]